Peripheral Sensor Interface (PSI5) technology represents a standard for data transmission in automotive safety applications (see www.psi5.org). Originally designed for airbag applications latest specifications cover additional fields of application like engine management and vehicle dynamics. Automotive systems or components use the PSI5 interface for communication between peripheral sensors/actuators and a control unit. PSI5 connects sensors or actuators to a control unit on the basis of a two-wire cable. The cable serves both for power supply of the sensors or actuators and for data communication.
An application of this controller was in the automotive Road Noise Compensation (RNC) project. The RNC algorithm works with acceleration values coming from the driving and coupled axles. The accelerations are measured with sensors which use the PSI5 interface as communication, diagnostic and supply voltage. The controller collects all these acceleration data and transmit them directly and digital, without any losses of accuracy and other transformations, to the digital signal processor (DSP). This DSP will then calculate the RNC signals to reduce the noise level in the vehicle compartment.
Another automotive application could be, to get radar information from an PSI5 radar sensor of the front bumper. These sensors are connected via PSI5 interface to a processing unit, where a digital signal processor calculates the distance between the front of the vehicle and pedestrians or any objects.
However, the usage of data provided by conventional PSI5 controllers is very limited, since presently any conventional PSI5 controller outputs a data format that is merely suitable for directly controlling the activation of some means, for example, an airbag in a vehicle. Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide for means for using data supplied by a PSI5 controller in response to sensor data in a more flexible manner as compared to the art.